Trainer-of -Trainers program.
The trips expose conservancy
managers, Holistic
Management coordinators,
and selected conservancy
leaders to other communities
already putting Holistic
Management into practice.
ACHM has done much work
with near-by communities and
has developed something
called the Community Action
Cycle (CAC) that allows
communities to establish and
Belinda Mackey explaining ecosystem processes to
scale up their efforts to
GZT game scouts.
regenerate land. The Kenyans
are impressed with the ability
of community members to talk about their holistic
the holistic goal developed at the beginning of
context
(holistic goal), their holistically planned
the grazing planning workshops. Within several
grazing
and their sense of ownership in the
years these hopes were becoming a reality.
process and are encouraged that it is possible for
their communities to have the same sense of
Community Support & Training
ownership of the grazing planning process.
The workshops are in remote locations and
The Kenyans also have the privilege of
include a diversity of people: young, old,
seeing Dimbangombe Ranch’s present grazing
schooled, non-schooled, men, women. Belinda
plan in action and walking the land with Allan
makes sure that there is diversity so knowledge
Savory and ranch manager Shane Bartlett. Allan
from the training has the power to affect all.
spends a day with them going through the whole
During the workshops, the participants are
grazing planning process using
divided into sub-groups of women, morans
parameters/challenges that they face. This
(warriors), and elders. Each sub-group learns a
becomes a very important exercise for them as
certain piece of content and then teach what they they hone their skills in teaching holistic planned
learned to the whole group. This participatory
grazing to their own communities.
process allows people to know the content more
One day at Dimbangombe is spent with
intimately and it equalizes the dynamics among
Shane’s herders as they graze the cattle and
the participants.
goats according to their grazing plan. The
The workshop content includes information
Kenyans are impressed with the handling of the
about ecosystem processes. The women subcattle and goats at Dimbangombe and see it as
group tends to connect with the ecosystem
key to implementing holistic grazing in their
process called energy flow. They go through an
conservancies. They implore Belinda to help
exercise that links the capture of sunlight by
them learn low-stress livestock handling like it is
forage plants to animal productivity and on to
done at Dimbangombe when they return home.
family well-being through better
nutrition. Belinda enjoys seeing
their faces when they realize it all
starts with the grass and they can
do something about it. The shift
of focus from animal performance
(they depend on daily milk) to
land performance becomes an
“ah ha moment”. They realize
that shifting grazing practices to
ones that nurture and strengthen
grasses and forbs will make them
less vulnerable to food shortages
throughout the year.
Belinda has organized annual
trips to the Africa Centre for
Holistic Management (ACHM)
near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe for
Grevy’s zebra family
the second level of Belinda’s

Delivering on her promise, Belinda had Guy
Glosson, a well-known, low-stress livestock
handler and HMI Certified Educator (and the
person who trained the herders at
Dimbangombe) give a workshop for a group
herders and managers in the spring of 2014 at
Kalama Conservancy. Even though there were
some logistical problems with the cattle supply,
the participants went away with an understanding
of the principles and confidence in practice: They
could see this technique playing a pivotal role in
ensuring their livestock can benefit from
bunching and moving together as called for in
their grazing plan.
Belinda’s goal for the training programs is to
establish enough knowledge and information
within a community so they can get behind
holistically planned grazing and put it into action
and sustain it for generations to come. The
principles of planned grazing as she presented
them aligned with people’s values and were easily
embraced by workshop attendees. People were
heard to say “our elders used to manage grazing
like this.” For many it was a comfortable return to
how things were done—but this time they
understand the principles behind the practice.
Workshops end with participants asking for more
knowledge, more practice, and more ideas.
Belinda has captured the heart and respect of
the people in this region of Kenya. They see her
working to conserve an endangered species she
dearly loves and have collaborated with her to
conserve the pastoral way of life in Kenya.
Because she is advocating and providing a
holistic approach, a new paradigm for
conservation is gaining ground in one of the most
remarkably complex regions of our world. With so
much gained in a handful of years just imagine
the possibilities to come.
Craig Leggett taught HMI’s Certified Educator
Training Program in Kenya where he met Belinda
in 2005. Since then they have
worked together in developing
and facilitating the Holistic
Planned Grazing and Trainer-ofTrainer workshops for the
Northern Rangelands Trust
community-based wildlife
conservancies. Craig has
worked with the Borana in
Ethiopia and the Maasai in
southern Kenya and other
holistic planned grazing projects.
He now lives in northern New
York State where he is reviving
his family’s 200 year old
farmstead. He can be reached
at: craigrleggett@gmail.com or
518/4942324
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